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High anxiety: Collapse - Riverside Studios

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It’s a brave or maybe slightly provocative production to use Hammersmith Bridge on their artwork for a show called Collapse, which is about how everything collapses—poorly maintained bridges, relationships, and jobs. Nothing works. That’s probably too close to home for Hammersmith residents stuck with a magnificently listed and useless bridge on their front door. It gets even weirder when you realise the piece is staged in what looks like a meeting room with a bar. However, keeping things together in the most unlikely of circumstances is at the heart of Allison Moore's witty and engaging four-hander, which is currently having a limited engagement at Riverside Studios . The piece opens with Hannah (Emma Haines) about to get an injection from her husband (Keenan Heinzelmann). They’re struggling for a baby, and he’s struggling to get out of bed. But he managed to give her a shot of hormones before she started worrying about the rest of the day. She’s unsure she will keep her job with ...

Theatre: All New People


All New People, written and starring Zach Braff is a play that takes place over 90 or so minutes in the dead of winter at a beach house on Long Beach Island New Jersey. Zach's character Charlie is staying at his friends beach house for a few days as he is having a bit of crisis at this point in his life. He is about to end it all, when a real estate agent walks in... Then follows a fireman, and then a high-class hooker his best friend arranged to cheer him up with.

The stage is set for a bizarre and off-beat set of stories and revelations from this collection of four unlikely people. There is a detailed discussion about scabies and debates about the merits of various intoxicating substances. Projections help with the back stories of the characters, but it works best when it is just some off-beat random discussions about matters of trivial importance. Or are they? Whatever the case, the action moves briskly and the laughs are fairly constant.


Along with the Scrubs and Garden State star Zach Braff is a pretty hot cast. Eve Myles (known from Torchwood) plays the mildly eccentric real estate agent, Paul Hilton is the druggy fireman and Susannah Fielding is the glamorous escort with a heart of gold and tits to die for.

Maybe there are some Torchwood fans out there, but judging by the fans that are now gathering outside the theatre every night perhaps Mr Braff has got a potential hit on his hands. Assuming they are all paying to get a ticket and not just staying at home watching repeat episodes of Scrubs on E4...

Worth a look, if you can grab a ticket... I was impressed with the box seats in the circle as they were good value, close to the action and come complete with a hooks for your coats. The restricted view was not such a big deal given most of the action takes place dead centre.

First impressions are as follows...
Preview Boo: All New People (mp3)

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